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Tuesday, May 31, 2016

It's all in the details: TrimLab

Cassidy Wall

Walking into the TrimLab office, a
glass doors welcomes us as the copper windows overlooked the Garment
District. Bamboo-colored movable cabinets outlined the room and mounted TV’s
ran slides of various pictures. Two men, Dave and Dave, greeted us with smiles
as they set up more foldable chairs for our large group of twenty-seven.

We sat down
with no set expectations, as everything was closed and gave no sign of what the
company did. Soon we dived into a conversation about what people don’t discuss:
the nitty-gritty details. Zippers, bra cups, eye and hooks galore. These items
only stand out to consumers when they need to be fixed. When was the last time
you celebrated a dress for having a concealed zipper rather than the halter
style? Or noticed how well the hook and eye helped your shirt stay together?

One of the
Dave’s had been in the business for quite sometime; his ancestor started it out
of a moving cart. Passed down generation to generation, he was now carrying out
the work of what his grandfather did, but just in a little different fashion. Both
discussed how much the Garment district had changed. It went from a bustling area,
seeing designers daily, to having everything become outsourced. The company
itself has stayed small, with The two Daves, a social media Intern turned
full-time employee, a marketing manager, and a few other workers actually
sewing in the details.

They opened
the cabinets to show us different companies that they worked with over the
years and companies they took on. Their main initiative was to take on small
companies and help them with the details of their designs or focus of their
business. They had taken on two women designers that were starting a women’s
swimwear line. The two women were struggling to get their designs off the
ground, but with the help of Trim Lab, they now sell in Sak’s and similar
stores. Both of them also showed us to their back room, where employees were working on zippers and we saw their immense display of inventory.

The two
Daves told us about their successes but also did not leave out their failures.
One product that did not work for them was bra cups- because getting the right
fit is everything. They consistently had backlash about how it was not fitting
right, so they would make another and get the same result. It was too
customizable and a narrow sector to profit from.

Leaving us
with a bit of advice, they said to party like it’s 1999—or something like that.
But specifically, they detailed how networking is the key to success within the
fashion industry. You never know who you might be sitting next to at a dinner
or standing next to at a party; those people could land you your next job. Sometimes,
the little things count and for them, it’s all about the details.